Friday, May 06, 2011

Racist of the Day: Mike Bennett

The Florida legislature is attempted to make the most voting restrictive laws in the country. The legislation cuts down early voting by a week, women who remarried will have to cast a provisional ballot which are usually thrown out. College student that change addresses will also be forced to cast a provisional ballot. Grassroot organizations that register voters face the potential of fines. Sen. Mike Bennett argues in favor the likely illegal voting legislation. Bennett's argument is racist and downright bizarre.

“Do you read the stories about the people in Africa? The people in the desert, who literally walk two and three hundred miles so they can have the opportunity to do what we do, and we want to make it more convenient? How much more convenient do you want to make it?” he said. “Do we want to go to their house? Take the polling booth with us?”

“This is a hard-fought privilege,” he added. “This is something people die for. You want to make it convenient? The guy who died to give you that right, it was not convenient. Why would we make it any easier? I want ‘em to fight for it. I want ‘em to know what it’s like. I want them to go down there, and have to walk across town to go over and vote,” he said.

Politifact ruled Bennett's statement about Africans walking "two or three hundred miles" a pants on fire lie. Bennett's comment says more about his misinformed view on Africans than about voting.

"Why would we make it any easier?" Bennett asks. "I want ‘em to fight for it. I want ‘em to know what it’s like. I want them to go down there, and have to walk across town to go over and vote." I wonder if Bennett would require Republicans to walk to polling precincts. More likely Bennett wants to enact Jim Crow-style voting laws to make voting tougher for blacks that vote Democratic. And this is Bennett's sales pitch for this horrible legislation.